TMG Sydneyhttps://tmgsydney.wordpress.com
for users of The Master Genealogist in Sydney and elsewhereTue, 17 Oct 2017 12:43:16 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/024e80dc32fdd9b0c2cad918286f6873?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngTMG Sydneyhttps://tmgsydney.wordpress.com
Is it worth upgrading to TMG9?https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/is-it-worth-upgrading-to-tmg9/
https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/is-it-worth-upgrading-to-tmg9/#respondMon, 10 Mar 2014 00:20:38 +0000http://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/?p=218Continue reading →]]>The latest version of The Master Genealogist has been released. The focus has been on making data entry faster and easier, with enhancements such as:

You can now add a new source quickly without leaving the Citation screen. You can still click on the [+] button to add a source using the full power of the Source Definition Screen.

There is now a button to preview the source output directly from the Citation screen (long overdue!).

You can now add shared events (e.g., Census) on the Add Multiple People and Add Family screens, including the role of each participant.

You can now add an Age column with a Birth Date column when adding multiple people. If an age and the event date are added for a person, the Birth date will be calculated automatically.

When adding multiple people you can copy the value in the top cell of a column to everyone else on that screen.

These enhancements may not mean much if you aren’t adding a lot of new information to your project these days, but if you’re still actively researching they should make life a lot easier.

The other major enhancement is to do with sentences, with the addition of a Subject variable, which should make the construction of sentences for ‘witnesses’ or other roles in events much easier to construct. If you have always thought customising the sentences created by TMG in reports was too difficult, this might be the time to have another look.

I currently have 14 projects going for current clients, as well as my own family project, so the conversion process won’t be quick. I do a lot of data entry and anything that makes this process quicker will be a good thing for me and for my clients. I’m looking forward to getting started.

Filed under: News, Sources Tagged: Sentences, Sources]]>https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/is-it-worth-upgrading-to-tmg9/feed/0-33.704748 151.098696-33.704748151.098696CaroleWhen VCF gives up, there’s always Adobe Acrobat Professionalhttps://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/when-vcf-gives-up-theres-always-adobe-acrobat-professional/
https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/when-vcf-gives-up-theres-always-adobe-acrobat-professional/#commentsSun, 05 Jan 2014 00:15:41 +0000http://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/?p=214Continue reading →]]>Recently I learned how to edit a chart in Adobe Acrobate Professional when VCF had given up on me. It is a 3-metre chart built from a combination of 9 separate generated charts and at some point VCF decided that some of the boxes and their contents were no longer editable. This meant I couldn’t change the text in the boxes or move the boxes around without wild things happening with the connector lines. I have no idea why, and I didn’t have time to muck around with it or go to the developer for help. There was no way I was going to regenerate and combine all the charts.

So once the PDF had been generated and more changes were needed, including centring the chart (now impossible in VCF as some of the boxes wouldn’t move), I was able to do it in Acrobat. Two boxes that were created with the wrong thickness were recreated in Adobe. Badly behaved connector lines were fixed. Text was changed, boxes moved (and lined up), and the panic I was in to get this ready in time to print 30 copies before Christmas was over.

Filed under: News Tagged: annual report, blog, stats]]>https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/2011-in-review/feed/0-33.704748 151.098696-33.704748151.098696CaroleTMG 8.0 upgrade processhttps://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/tmg-8-0-upgrade-process/
https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/tmg-8-0-upgrade-process/#respondFri, 23 Dec 2011 02:43:01 +0000http://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/?p=194Continue reading →]]>TMG 8.0 has been released and many of us are busy downloading and installing. Here are the instructions for converting projects from previous versions of TMG for use in TMG 8. You must follow these instructions, and not just open an existing project or backup. The following is from the Wholly Genes Support forum. http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index.php?showtopic=14104

The Upgrade Process

The TMG v8 installation is independent of any prior TMG installation. (That is, you can continue to run TMG v7 after TMG v8 is installed). Installing and running TMG v8 will create new and independent program and data folders as needed. However, it is very important that you not try to access the data associated with one program from the other program as they are not compatible.

Users of TMG v7 should follow these steps carefully to move and upgrade a COPY of their TMG v7 data to the TMG v8 folder:

DO NOT USE A PRE-EXISTING BACKUP FILE.

Run TMG v7 and access File > Backup…

• On Step 1 of the Backup Wizard, choose “Backup Project” from the list and click on Next.

• On Step 2, modify if necessary the “Select backup file” field. It specifies the location and name of the backup file that will be created.. Make a careful note of that location and file name and then click on Next.

• On Step 3, make NO CHANGES to this screen. The backup will include only data and no configuration files that might conflict with TMG v8. Click on Next.

• On Step 4, make NO CHANGES to this screen and click on Next.

• On Step 5, click on Finish.

Run TMG v8 using the Sample project and access File > Restore

Navigate to and select the backup file name that you recorded in Step 2 above.

• On Step 1 of the Restore Wizard, choose “Restore Project” from the list and click on Next.

• On Step 2, verify that the restore paths refer to “The Master Genealogist v8”. Make NO CHANGES to this screen. Click on Next.

• On Step 3, make NO CHANGES to this screen and click on Next.

• On Step 4, make NO CHANGES to this screen and click on Next.

• On Step 5, click on Finish.

Thanks Kerry for posting these on the mailing list.

Filed under: Import, Upgrades Tagged: export, import, upgrade]]>https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/tmg-8-0-upgrade-process/feed/0-33.704748 151.098696-33.704748151.098696CaroleHow to change the pagesize in VCF without regenerating the chart in TMGhttps://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/how-to-change-the-pagesize-in-vcf-without-regenerating-the-chart-in-tmg/
https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/how-to-change-the-pagesize-in-vcf-without-regenerating-the-chart-in-tmg/#commentsWed, 07 Sep 2011 02:13:53 +0000http://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/?p=191Continue reading →]]>You’ve run the chart, made lots of changes, added new people, removed others, moved them around, and so on and so on, and then you realise that the page size is A4. Aaarrrrrgh!

According to my previous post you need to change the default printer and page size in Windows before generating the chart in TMG, and you didn’t do that. Do you have to make all those manual changes again?

This is the question I had to answer yesterday, and the answer, I’m grateful to be able to say, is no. I went searching and came across the answer buried in a forum discussion with Robin Lamacraft and others on the Wholly Genes website.

The answer relies on the fact that the pagesize is buried in the .VC2 file. Once you create the chart it’s too late to change it. So the answer is to create another one. Some of these steps are the same as for creating the chart from scratch in TMG, so I have copied them directly from the previous post.

Make sure PDFCreator is installed. This is free software to allow you to print a file as a PDF. The following instructions probably work with other PDF software but this is the one I use.

Set PDFCreator as the default printer in Windows.

While you are there, right click on the PDFCreator icon and select Printer Preferences.

This is where you are going to change the size of the page. You have to do this here, it doesn’t allow it from within VCF.*

Select the orientation of the paper. A long skinny chart might be better in landscape; a not-so-skinny chart might be better in portrait.

Click on the Advanced button.

Change the Paper Size to PostScript Custom Page Size

Click on the Edit Custom Page Size button

The width and height are probably set to A4, ie Width 210.00 and Height 297.00. Change these to suit. For example, if you have set the orientation to Landscape so that you have a single chart with multiple A4 sheets end to end then multiply the Height by the number of pages.

If in doubt, bigger is better than smaller.

Paper feed direction seems not to matter.

Click OK and OK again.

Make sure VCF is closed.

Open VCF. It now knows about the new default printer and page size.

Now create a new, empty chart in VCF. It will be in the new page size.

Now open the one you spent all that time changing, and CNTRL-A to select everything on the chart.

Copy the chart and paste it into the new chart. (Use CNTRL-C in the old chart and CNTRL-V in the new one).

Make sure the new chart is centred correctly, and check that when you turn the page bounds on (in View) that you can’t see any.

If you can see the same ones that you see for A4 then something is wrong and you need to go back to the beginning.

If the diagram is not quite long enough you may need to make it a little bigger – go to Tools -> Diagram -> Diagram Measurements.

The page bound should be past the end of the diagram.

* When you bring up the Print window there should be a button to change the printer. I don’t see this button. Apparently this is a Vista issue, and doesn’t happen to everyone. I now have a Windows 7 computer and I still don’t see the Printer button. I’m not sure that this would help even if I could see it and change the printer, if the page size is stored in the VC2 file itself.

Filed under: Charts Tagged: charts, PDF, printing, Visual Chart Form]]>https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/how-to-change-the-pagesize-in-vcf-without-regenerating-the-chart-in-tmg/feed/1-33.704748 151.098696-33.704748151.098696CarolePrint a chart to PDF as one piecehttps://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/print-a-chart-to-pdf-as-one-piece/
https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/print-a-chart-to-pdf-as-one-piece/#respondMon, 15 Aug 2011 09:06:32 +0000http://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/?p=177Continue reading →]]>I have had to remind myself how to creat a PDF file of a chart in one piece, and so I am writing the instructions here for next time.

I use Windows 7, and used similar instructions on my old Vista laptop.

Make sure PDFCreator is installed. This is free software to allow you to print a file as a PDF. The following instructions probably work with other software but this is the one I use.

Set PDFCreator as the default printer in Windows.

While you are there, right click on the PDFCreator icon and select Printer Preferences.

This is where you are going to change the size of the page. You have to do this here, it doesn’t allow it from within VCF.

Select the orientation of the paper. A long skinny chart might be better in landscape; a not-so-skinny chart might be better in portrait.

Click on the Advanced button.

Change the Paper Size to PostScript Custom Page Size

Click on the Edit Custom Page Size button

The width and height are probably set to A4, ie Width 210.00 and Height 297.00. Change these to suit. For example, if you have set the orientation to Landscape so that you have a single chart with multiple A4 sheets end to end then multiply the Height by the number of pages.

If in doubt, bigger is better than smaller.

Paper feed direction seems not to matter.

Click OK and OK again.

NOW create your chart in TMG.

The chart should display on the screen without cut marks.

If it doesn’t, go back and do it all again. You must close VCF.

Use Print Preview to be sure.

Print the chart to PDF.

It should be one continuous piece instead of lots of pieces to stick together. If you have a lot of long thin pieces with a small part of the chart on each you have done it wrong. This is the result if you try to change the page size from within VCF when you are printing it.

Once you have created the PDF to your satisfaction then go back and reset the page size in PDFCreator and change your default printer back to whatever it was before.

I’m sure I didn’t have to make the PDFCreator the default printer before, but it doesn’t allow me to to change the page size while I am in VCF until I try to print it, so there is no alternative.

At the 4th Annual TMG Sydney Conference in April 2011 Bruce Fairhall, Convenor of the conference, shared with us his methods for using TMG as his filing cabinet. He gave us a four-page handout which he has kindly allowed me to share on the blog. This the the last of four posts.

MY INFORMANTS (Sources and more)

1. I have a TMG Flag called INFORMANT (default = “N”), and an accompanying TMG Tag called INFORMANT, with a sentence like: [P] was able to provide information about [M]

So a person who gives me substantive information about a family or topic, or is a source that may be needed in the future, is included in the database with all details such as address, phone number, email as Tags, and the Tag INFORMANT has that information in the MEMO field such as Halliwell Family History. Note the family name or ship name etc. is the first word in the Memo. For sorting, the INFORMANT Flag is set to “Y” so I can print out a Report sorted by Memo, thus printing all those who informed about a topic/family together. This is great if I want to find, for example, all those who gave me information on the Halliwell family.

1. As stated earlier, my Sources utilise Lackey details, and I have each informant as a single source. I did start using a different Source for each individual letter, but this could overflow, and my point 3 (below) splits and defines separate letters/emails very easily. When endnotes/footnotes are printed in a TMG Report, the Memo field is printed as a part of the citation. Other sources are the BD&M for each state, BD&M for each relevant UK County and so on.

2. As Letters are my main source, in the Abbreviation I use the person’s name (e.g. Alex Hunter), in the full title I use Personal Correspondence from Alexander J. Hunter and Short Name is Alex Hunter. My sources are sorted on abbreviation, so another letter received from Alex Hunter is easy to source: I just press F4, F2, then type Al and it’s near Alex – select him and it’s cited.

3. Then in the Citation Detail field I put my file location, such as Letter: 2010-45 or Email: 24 Jul 2009. So for a birth record I might have a reference to BD&M NSW cited with the Reg. No: in the Memo field, then a letter from someone that gave me the exact date and location for the event. As BIRTH-REG wasn’t a Tag initially, I don’t use it now because I have too many to go back through!

4. I do use a few Repositories, mainly for books I’ve borrowed: so the Library is the Repository and the book is the Source, with relevant Page Numbers in the MEMO field of the citation.

Note: This process has been documented for sharing with other TMG users, and is not copyright or secret. I’d appreciate suggestions as to better clarity etc. if any changes to this procedure might make it easier for others to understand it. It is MY system, and that doesn’t mean it’s right or the best: the main thing is that it works for me.

Filed under: Sources Tagged: flags, Sources, synchronisation]]>https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/bruces-filing-cabinet-4-informants-and-sources/feed/0-33.704748 151.098696-33.704748151.098696CaroleBruce’s Filing Cabinet 3 – Inward correspondencehttps://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/bruces-filing-cabinet-3-inward-correspondence/
https://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/bruces-filing-cabinet-3-inward-correspondence/#respondMon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:07 +0000http://tmgsydney.wordpress.com/?p=154Continue reading →]]>At the 4th Annual TMG Sydney Conference in April 2011 Bruce Fairhall, Convenor of the conference, shared with us his methods for using TMG as his filing cabinet. He gave us a four-page handout which he has kindly allowed me to share on the blog. This the the third of four posts.

INWARDS CORRESPONDENCE

1. I use the Lackey descriptions for Sources, as it is not really the type of source I am interested in but where/who it came from. I do not see myself writing a book with full bibliography, and so the definitive splits used by Mills were overkill to me.

2. Emails are classed as Letters because they are! If an email just has a few bits of information, I cite that as to person (each person is a Source) and add the Citation Detail like Email: 23 July 2010. Then I delete the email as I know WHO provided that information and when. In that way, I might not have the actual evidence but I know who to contact (or blame) for a certain piece of data.

3. I was initially filing emails in sub-folders of my Inbox relevant to the family (Fairhall –NSW, Fairhall -Canada etc.) but it became too hard to locate them once their numbers swelled, and if I’d transcribed the contents it should become either a “Letter” or just delete it as I’d probably never need to refer to it again, as per the next point. If an email contains lots of data (subjective) I print it out and file it like a real written letter.

4. I use TMG to file my informants and family’s email addresses, with a special Tag. This has the added advantage of allowing me to keep the date of last contact, so in some cases there will be doubt as whether that email address may not be the current one.

5. I have a TMG Tag LETTERS. This is used for any person who has sent me a “letter”. It is used without a date or sort date to the Tag so it displays at the top of the person Tags. In the MEMO field I list the file numbers of letters that person wrote to me as they are dealt with: 2007-34; 2007-78; 2009-12; 2010-32 etc.

The sentence for the tag reads: [P] was the author of letter/s ref: [M]

Then when I look at the data for someone in my database I know what letters they wrote and I can locate those letters if needed. It can also be a List of Events Report from TMG if needed, but the printout could be rather large!!

6. Each Letter is numbered at lower right on the front page, with the year it was written and a number in sequence as I dealt with it. I don’t get too hung up about this as it’s just a filing system! So the first letter/substantive email I dealt with in 2010 is numbered 2010-1, the next is 2010-2 and so on. They are filed in that sequence in folders, so the file builds up as the year progresses. Sometimes I open up a letter written last year that for some reason I’d ignored and held: it is numbered 2009-xx after whatever was the last of that year’s letters – no stress!

Note: This process has been documented for sharing with other TMG users, and is not copyright or secret. I’d appreciate suggestions as to better clarity etc. if any changes to this procedure might make it easier for others to understand it. It is MY system, and that doesn’t mean it’s right or the best: the main thing is that it works for me.

At the 4th Annual TMG Sydney Conference in April 2011 Bruce Fairhall, Convenor of the conference, shared with us his methods for using TMG as his filing cabinet. He gave us a four-page handout which he has kindly allowed me to share on the blog. This the the second of four posts.

EXHIBITS

1. The system for exhibits and other references revolves around the Person ID# as allocated by TMG. So, with my system now running I cannot totally renumber my people, but why would I want to? Before implementing it, I moved some people around by renumbering single persons, then renumbered my whole data from ID#1 (me). If I delete a person, or do a Merge Persons, I use that “spare” number later, by pressing F2 on the Add Person screen, then I can select and use that unused number so it’s not wasted. So every person in my data set has a fixed ID number.

2. All exhibits are External, and are in a folder named \Exhibits (in a customised location so I can find it easily!!). Turn on Thumbnails and the images can be seen. Perhaps I could have had sub-folders with Primary, Images, Certificates, Documents etc. all separated – but if I have just the one large folder I can easily see what exhibits I have for any given person.

3. I use leading zeros so any sorting of my exhibits would put them in numerical order, and all people are nominally given 6 digits when I name my exhibits. This was very optimistic as potentially it gave me “space” in my data for 999,999 people – probably five digits (capability 99,999 people) would have been sufficient! So TMG Person #1234 is called 001234 for filing exhibit purposes. Any exhibit for that person has the number 001234 at the start of its file name. Then when that folder is sorted according to “File Name”, all the exhibits for each person are viewable together because the first 6 digits are the ID number.

4. Exhibits are named by person Surname –Given Name then a description of what the exhibit is. I started this a bit late and so what could be a strict naming system isn’t! It could be very tightly defined. So, some exhibits for our TMG #1234 could be like:

001234 Bright –John BCert 1876.jpg

001234 Bright –John MCert 1900.jpg

001234 Bright –John EngineerCert 1927.gif

001234 Bright –John DCert 1953.jpg

001234 Bright –John Biography.rtf

and so on …

5. If I have documents (photocopies or originals) I copy them then place them into a Family Documents lever arch file with that ID# at top right, in numerical order. So all documents relating to John Bright would be at 1234 in my folder. Marriage Certificates are a problem, so I number by which party is closest to my line, whether the male or female (my discretion – as it’s only a system not a definitive process!!). The folders have dividers for each thousand, and at the front is a print out (Word file) that is an index in Surname, Given Name order with the ID#. So a marriage certificate will be indexed under both parties. If I want to find Alfred Gumbleton, I look in the index under Gumbleton, Alfred and he is ID #3022 so at that location in the lever arch file will be any documents for him. Likewise William Fairhall ID #2766.

6. Other exhibits are usually attached via the relevant Tag, so Marriage Certificate, wedding groups etc. are attached to the Marriage Tag, headstone photographs to the Burial Tag etc.

7. I really need to include original photo prints in this system, but haven’t done so yet. It would be possible to have plastic sleeves with the prints filed again in TMG ID# order, with an index at the front. Finding suitable plastic archival sleeves, to cater for several sizes of prints, was my main stumbling block, but I have one from Gould’s that will do the job. Or I could combine it with my document index. One day …

8. I attach a primary exhibit (portrait or similar) to the person using the Exhibit icon on the toolbar. The Reference field in the TMG Properties is the name of the person who provided it. I also include that name in the Exhibit Description, as: Birth Certificate – John Bright 1876 (from Fred Bright).

9. I have some special Tags for family groups (IMG-Family), historical photos/images (IMG-Hist), Wills that are in a text (.rtf) format (DOC-Will) and so on. As my major archive is in HTML format via Second Site, my exhibits then are icons attached to the relevant Tag sentence, and can be opened easily by the viewer.

10. I do have a few exhibits that are photos of e.g. a church used by several people, a document about a ship on which several people travelled etc. These exhibits are given a descriptive file name so I can refer to them as needed – no numbering is included as they don’t refer to a specific person.

11. Exhibit size for image scans or cropped photos etc. has been roughly standardised as follows:

– Scans of precious documents/photos are filed apart from TMG, full size scans in .PNG or .TIF format in 300dpi

– Primary exhibits (portraits) are scanned to 75-95 dpi, and approx. 300 pixels high (see web site) which displays as a good size image in Second Site (see web site). Thumbnails in TMG Preferences are set to 200 pixels which is good in the TMG people data screen.

– Other exhibits are scanned 75-95 dpi, up to 950 pixels wide for portrait orientation images and up to 650 pixels high for landscape orientation. Viewers can scan up/down or across with keyboard to view the whole image in Second Site etc. Older monitors are 72/75dpi, but more recent monitors are closer to 95dpi – but there is little viewing difference. My current monitor has a screen 410mm (17.4”) wide set to 1440 pixel resolution and it is therefore operating at 83dpi.

Note: This process has been documented for sharing with other TMG users, and is not copyright or secret. I’d appreciate suggestions as to better clarity etc. if any changes to this procedure might make it easier for others to understand it. It is MY system, and that doesn’t mean it’s right or the best: the main thing is that it works for me.